


Writing on the walls

by Ofwordsandroses



Series: Five for Five [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy-centric, mild bad language, sibling bonding without the threat of doomsday, they stop the apocalypse because i said so, what a treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25785043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ofwordsandroses/pseuds/Ofwordsandroses
Summary: In their family they all have a few odd habits, even Five. Or perhaps mostly Five.Or: Five writes on walls, he doesn't get why that's a problem.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Allison Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Diego Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Five for Five [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868098
Comments: 23
Kudos: 505





	Writing on the walls

In this family they all have strange habits. Diego has a bad habit of using quite literally anything as a target. The poor taxidermy moose head now had more dents in it than fur. Luther, well Luther is nothing but odd habits at this point but if Five has to name one he’d say the collection of eighties music he hoards in his room. Allison has a collection of feather boas and Klaus has a bad habit of stealing them. Actually Klaus has a bad habit of stealing everyone’s clothes, period. The only reason Five is spared is because he’s currently stuck in his thirteen-year-old body-

Not going there.

Thinking about it Vanya might be the only well-adjusted adult among them and she had started the apocalypse. Wait there it is, Vanya’s odd habits is that she’s occasionally known to cause the end of life as they all knew it.

And Five, while he didn’t originally see a problem with it, wrote on walls.

It was just that in the apocalypse it wasn’t like he had any paper to hand. No fancy spiral notebooks or graph paper. Just ash, ash and fire and rubble.

So once he had ran out of any surviving books to scribble his calculations in he started using the walls of whatever shelter he had found. Delores never seemed to mind, only when he accidentally got chalk on her clothes. He had to work out his maths somewhere, to get back to his family, to _save_ his family.

In a world where no one existed but himself it was easy to forget what was classed as ‘normal’ In fact he hadn’t even considered his habit ‘odd’ until Allison had walked into his room.

“Five?” Allison calls as she knocks on his door but Five, like any sane individual would, elects to ignore her. He was in the middle of re-running some calculations and honestly if he stops now he didn’t think he’d have the strength to continue. He’s on his seventh cup of coffee and his hand is aching something awful-

“Five?”

“What?” Five can’t help but snap back and glares at the door when Allison walks through it anyway.

“What do you want?” he demands recapping his marker and chucking it – somewhere, he’d find it later.

“Five what the hell is this?” Allison questions and Five bristles at her tone. He’s heard that tone of voice before after all. The patented ‘I am mother listen to me’ tone that Allison often uses on him these days.

But that isn’t the issue of today. No the issue of the day is that Allison for some ineffable reason has a problem with Five writing on the walls of his own damned room. He’s sure he could find some paper somewhere but honestly if his equations were covering all four walls of his room is he really going to find a notebook big enough? The walls were convenient, nothing less, nothing more.

He says all that to Allison, although perhaps a bit snider than he had framed in his head. Allison let out a huff and stalks away.

And that was that.

Or so he thought.

*

He had only left the house for a decent cup of coffee because even now his siblings were incapable of buying anything that wasn’t liquid dirt but when he came back every one of his markers had disappeared. There wasn’t a single one left in the whole god forsaken house. And he knew exactly who did it.

“Allison!” Five shouts as he made his way into the living room. His lovely darling sister is sat on the sofa with a magazine and an expectant smug smile and Five felt his fists clench slightly by his side.

“If I go out to buy more markers can I assume they won’t go on a spontaneous walk about when I get back?” Five asks with a tight smile.

“Well I don’t know Five” Allison responds in a faux pleasant tone and turns a page of her magazine “Are you going to go back to scrawling on your walls?”

“You can’t confiscate my things Allison. You can’t treat me like I’m a child”

“I will when your acting like one”

Five jumps out of the room before he did something drastic. He needs a coffee.

Or maybe something stronger.

*

Five finds his markers in Allison’s room, buried beneath her collection of feather boas. He takes them back and graciously decides not to vandalise Allison’s room in retaliation which is a remarkable show of restraint on his part. He returns to his calculations. He has just gotten his siblings back and his time travel is the one sure way he could make sure they all stayed alive. He just needed to work on it – so he could _‘acorn’_

“Five this isn’t healthy” Allison says, walking into his room without even knocking which _honestly?_

“I don’t really think you have the high ground on that front Allison” Five snaps back and jumps down off his bed so he could properly glare at his sister. Why couldn’t they all just leave him alone?

“Five just _listen for once in your life-_

“Oh” Five scoffed “like you all listen to me – okay”

“This obsession with the apocalypse isn’t healthy, I’m just trying to look out for you-”

“This isn’t about the _apocalypse_ ” he says tightly and watches as Allison blinks in confusion.

“Then what is it?” she says slowly and Five sighs.

“Just because you’re a moron doesn’t mean I have to waste my time explaining this to you”

Allison didn’t even blink at his insult and continues to look at him with a calm steady gaze.

“I will call Vanya in here – don’t think I won’t”

Five glares at her venomously.

Calling Vanya was a low blow, even for her.

“Look okay time travel is finicky, I _need_ these equations as an insurance policy” Five explains and resists the urge to rub the back of his neck. He needs another coffee, would there still be some in the pot?

“But Five” Allison says and Five shuffles back slightly when she makes an aborted move to reach for his hands. A resigned look enters her eyes and Five squashes down the guilt that follows.

“The apocalypse is over, _you_ stopped it Five. We’re safe now-

“But what if we’re not?” Five cuts her off sharply, vaguely noticing the tremors in his hands. When had he last slept? “The commission is still out there and don’t say I’m a paranoid because it’s happened before so it can happen again”

Allison levels him with a measuring gaze and Five wants to bristle underneath the calculating weight of her stare. Out of all of them Allison is without a doubt the best when it came to people, Diego coming in a close second when he dropped the whole ‘vigilante’ act which happens once in a blue moon.

“Okay” Allison says lightly and Five continues to look at her in suspicion. That had been far too easy.

Allison left with a small smile that did nothing to ease Five’s worries. Perhaps now that her curiosity had been sated, she’d leave him alone for a bit.

Five already knew he was lying to himself.

*

“Come on old man!” Klaus’ cheery voice echoes down the corridor and Five sighs tiredly. Not even one minute into interacting with Klaus and he can already feel himself losing brain cells by the second.

“I want waffles” he cheers and leans against the doorway of Five’s room, trailing a curious eye over the walls.

“Make Diego take you”

“Diego doesn’t want waffles”

“Well neither do I” Five responds tersely and grimaces when his marker gives out on him. He started using a silver one to go over his previous mess of black scribbled probability maps, but he should have known it wouldn’t last much longer. Giving it a vigorous shake, he tries to ignore a pouting Klaus in the corner.

“But _Five,_ if you get Diego to drive us I’ll get you a coffee” Klaus bribes, raising his eyebrows in question when Five turns to face him.

That sounded promising. But-

“You don’t have any money Klaus”

“But, dear old brother of mine, I have something even better”

Five watches as for the next minute or so Klaus starts frantically patting down every pocket of the coat he swore used to be Allison’s at one point or another. Letting out a victorious proclamation Klaus ripped something from inside pocket and held it aloft with a pleased grin.

“Is that Diego’s wallet?” Five asks with narrowed eyes. Klaus beams and nods his head.

“Can we go get waffles now?” Klaus pleads giving Five his best approximation of puppy-dog eyes. And well, if Diego was paying who was Five to resist.

Five straightens his blazer and sends a small smirk towards Klaus.

“I’ll meet you in the car”

And with that he jumps, just catching the loud ‘whoop’ Klaus lets out as he disappears landing in the passenger seat of Diego’s car.

Five minutes later he’s joined by Klaus who practically throws himself into the back seat, clutching Diego’s wallet close to his chest and panting heavily. A minute after that Diego himself rounds the corner and Five gives him a cheery mocking wave from the passenger side. Diego pauses for a moment, closes his eyes and seems to take a moment to pray for patience before he climbs into the car himself.

“I can’t believe you’re involved in this as well” Diego says shooting a glare at Klaus who was now sat up happily in the back seat.

Five gives an innocent shrug of his shoulders “I’m Klaus’ hostage”

“My ransom is two waffles”

“Hostage my ass” Diego grumbles but still starts up the car anyway.

*

It turns out to be a surprisingly pleasant trip out. Diego did end up paying for both him and Klaus and with a quiet ‘mom makes them better’ ends up ordering some waffles for himself as well. Five ends up bullying Diego into getting him another coffee for the way home and he’s still contentedly sipping on it when they return to the academy.

He should have known it was a trap.

After stealing Diego’s wallet off Klaus and shoving it into his own pocket Five returns to his room. He takes another sip of his coffee as he trekked up the stairs only to find Allison stood outside of his room.

“What have you done?” Five immediately asks upon seeing her.

“Okay now, don’t freak out”

Why did that not ease his worries in the slightest?

“What have you done?” Five repeats and steps up beside her as she opens up the door to his room.

His walls have been completely painted over and are back to their normal cream prior to Five’s calculations. Blank and plain and all of Five’s equations are now gone completely and-

“Before you start freaking out about your equations Vanya’s already taken pictures of them all so you don’t have to bite my head off”

Five isn’t confused often, his siblings just seem to be able to bring that out in him.

“You’ve yet to explain _why”_ Five commented, shoving his hands into his pockets. Allison smiles proudly and gestures to the back of his room where a stockpile of chalk is sat alongside an eraser.

“It’s chalkboard paint” she explains clearly pleased with herself “so you can still use your walls to do whatever paranoia maths you need to and then once you’re done you can clean it off. That way you can actually _relax_ in your room every once in a while, instead of obsessing over apocalypse equations”

Oh.

So, she really had just been worried about him then? And then had gone out of her way to make sure Five was comfortable even when he was a prick at the best of times and a complete utter bastard at the worse.

“I- Five went to speak rubbing the back of his neck before turning to face Allison “Thank you Allison, really-

“Five you saved us all from not one but _two_ apocalypses. The least I could do is give your room a well needed makeover”

The silence settles around them and Five was consciously aware of the fact he should probably be doing something now. Should he try and hug her? Allison has always been one of his most tactile siblings but Five honestly didn’t know if he could handle the complete awkwardness that would follow that interaction. Thankfully his ‘what the fuck is a normal sibling thing to do’ spiral is interrupted when Allison lets out a delicate laugh.

“Now why don’t you hand me Diego’s wallet and I won’t say anything about your criminal tendencies”

Five grins and fishes Diego’s wallet out of his pocket, throwing it towards Allison who disappears down the corridor with a laugh.

His family were full of odd habits.

Five wouldn’t have them any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys! thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!


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